Our Christmas Exhibition starts on the weekend of the 24th & 25th November 9:30 – 5pm.

I’ve now been a full time artist for 34 years! It’s been quite a journey, one which I’ve shared with many who have become an important part of my story as an artist.

2018 has been a landmark year as it was our 25th wedding anniversary in February. Although Susan became my business partner in 1995, her influence on my work really started eighteen months into our relationship when she introduced me to Venice in June 1991. It was only fitting to squeeze a short trip to Venice in September this year to recall and share our memories with our son Oliver and his wife Sophie. Some of my Venetian paintings will be on display for Our Christmas Exhibition.

For over 10 years I have received many interesting painting commissions from a number of clients in Oman. Another request came in over the summer months so we needed to travel to Oman to get further reference of this fascinating country. It was lovely to catch up with many of the friends we have made there over the years.

On a previous blog post I talked about a zip wire jump I did for a charity called Junction 42. It’s an amazing Christian charity that works with offenders and ex-offenders. In March this year I started doing some part time work for them, working mainly as a Job Coach helping ex-offenders to find employment.

I’ve also been inside several prisons delivering portrait drawing workshops to the inmates. It’s very different work to painting scenes of Oman or running Painting Holidays in Italy but I’m finding it very stimulating and rewarding.

Our Painting Holiday in Umbria, Italy was another success with most of the guests booking again for 2019. Demand means we’ve added new dates for the 21st – 28th September 2019.

It’s been a very busy and eventful year with all of the above and much more! Susan and I would love to share some of our stories with you at Our Christmas Exhibition starting on the weekend of the 24th & 25th November, 9:30 – 5pm.

We really hope you can make it. There will be lots of new paintings to see too!

The Great North Exhibition 2018 started at Newcastle’s spectacular quayside on the evening of Friday 22nd June. It heralded the start of 80 days of brilliant events, activities, performances and exhibitions celebrating art, design and innovation. I was unable to attend the launch however when I turned up to the Junction 42 offices this morning in Newcastle I couldn’t help but notice the brightly coloured banners bathed in early morning sunshine that were wrapped around Greys Monument.

The banners contain declarations like “no starving children” and “abolition of privilege”.

Great North Exhibition 2018 is a celebration of the North of England’s pioneering spirit which has three starting points, Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, the Sage Gateshead and the Great North Museum. These starting points also include the Get North Water Sculpture and the Discovery Museum which has Stephenson’s Rocket.

Starting on 30th June at my Studio & Gallery in Ponteland, I will be embracing the Great North Exhibition 2018 theme of celebrating art, design and design by exhibiting some of my finest paintings. I will also be describing to visitors my creative process which will include a tactile display of my leather bound hand made sketchbooks.

Leather Bound Sketchbooks

The pages of the sketchbooks record many of my painting travels, not just around the region but overseas in countries like Italy and Oman. Without doubt, these “en plein air” studies in watercolour are amongst my most precious possessions and are the catalyst for many of my studio paintings. Just last week a couple who have been on two of our painting holidays in Italy commissioned a watercolour of Perugia from one of my sketchbook watercolours of the Umbrian town.

My Summer Exhibition also includes recent oil paintings of the Angel of the North and the Tyne Bridge which have been embellished with 22 ct gold leaf and take on a different look and feel depending on the light.

If you would like to come and see the exhibition and look at the sketchbooks then it is best to contact first to make sure we are open.

Our new Spring Exhibition started on 31st March 2018 and continues until 30th April. I use the word “Spring” lightly as it’s snowing outside as I’m writing this blog post.

Due to the wintery conditions we have been experiencing since 2017 there is a snowy theme going on in this latest body of work. However there are some new cheery paintings on view. Please feel free to call us on 01661 871800 to arrange a viewing in a relaxed atmosphere.

The latest painting off the drawing board is “North Shields Fish Quay”. It’s a scene I first painted in 1985 for a client who commissioned a couple of River Tyne pictures. You can read about the other painting on a recent blog post about the River Tyne Painting.

This new watercolour depicts fishing trawlers bathed in late afternoon sunlight. In the distance you can see the old Port of Tyne buildings, some of which have long since gone. Fluid brush marks for the reflected light in the water and the soft edges for the engine smoke belching out of the trawlers help to keep the overall scene lively and free.

Balevullin Beach, Tiree

Another new painting is Balevullin Beach on the island of Tiree, one of the Inner Hebrides. On a recent blog post you can read about our trip there last May where I painted a number of watercolours on location. This oil has been inspired by those studies, including a small watercolour available online.

Balevullin Beach is popular with surfers who take advantage of the waves rolling in from the Atlantic Ocean. The turquoise sea and dramatic skies are a delight to paint.

We enjoyed mixed weather. Heavy rain followed by bright sunshine and wonderful sunsets was the pattern for each day.

Todi, Umbria

Todi in Umbria points us towards the finer weather to come and our Painting Holiday in June. You can watch a video on YouTube of how I used a number of sketches painted on location to produce this A4 watercolour painted on hand made paper.

Our Spring Exhibition continues throughout April however there are a few days when we will be closed so it is best to call us on 01661 871 800 to make sure we are open before setting out.

Our Christmas Exhibition starts on the weekend of the 4th and 5th November 2017. The scene above of Grey Street on a bleak winter’s day in Newcastle is this years Christmas Card and is also available as an original watercolour.

The Christmas Exhibition also includes many new original watercolours and oil paintings which I’ve been working on over the last 12 months in between painting commissions. Local scenes are featured together with works inspired by our Painting Holidays in Italy. Tranquil olive groves and picturesque hilltop towns are always a delight to capture on location in my sketchbook. Then it’s a trip down memory lane in the studio as I reflect on the holiday and develop these studies into more finished paintings.

I’ve also managed to squeeze in some new cityscapes of London and and beach scenes on the island of Tiree in Scotland.

There are a number of new limited edition prints also being showcased for the first time so it promises to be a busy weekend.

Our Christmas Exhibition will continue until Saturday 23rd December 2017.

Sycamore Gap on Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland was voted Tree of the Year this week by a public vote for the nations best loved tree, organised by The Woodland Trust.

The winning tree will now receive a grant of £1000 for some “Tree LC” and will compete against trees from all over the Continent for the title of European Tree of the Year, organised by the Environmental Partnership Association.

I recall painting a watercolour of the tree in snow as a Christmas Card for the Marie Curie Cancer fund over 10 years ago. This stretch of Hadrian’s Wall is bleak but spectacular in its barreness and stark beauty. As I’m writing this I’m feeling compelled to go for a walk along the wall and do a spot of sketching!

I’ve since painted the famous tree of the year again in winter sunlight. My viewpoint is taken from the Military Road which shows the tree of the year nestling in the famous gap in the wall. Sunlight is catching the clouds behind and creating an overall feeling of warmth to the painting.

The painting forms part of my Christmas Exhibition at my Studio & Gallery in Ponteland which finishes on the 24th December 2016.

It’s springtime! As I’m writing this blog post the weather outside feels distinctly more like winter but that’s not untypical for April in the north east of England. Despite the weather, springtime is the theme for my exhibition currently on show at my gallery in Ponteland throughout the month of April.

Because we can experience such variable weather, sometimes in a single day, my springtime exhibition is as equally varied. There’s an eclectic mix of places and subjects to see for springtime like some of the very picturesque fishing villages on the East Neuk of Fife, cityscapes of Edinburgh and the Alps, including my painting “Mont Blanc and Manganese Blue” which was selected for the Royal Watercolour Society Exhibition earlier this year.

Other subjects include some classic views of Newcastle’s Grey Street, the Roman Forum in Italy both of which have been captured in springtime. I also have some figurative paintings on display too.

Springtime is often a period where we take a fresh look at our homes and gardens to create a new look and feel to the environment we spend so much time in. What better place to start than to add to your art collection.

“A Mix for March” is a new exhibition at the Gullane Gallery which started on the 12th March. I’ve a number of new works on display including this new Painting of Pittenweem. I was fortunate to travel up to the East Neuk of Fife earlier in the year to do some sketchbook watercolours of three of the very picturesque fishing villages dotted along the coastline.

For this particular Painting of Pittenweem, I wanted to retain the loose sketchbook qualities of the “en plein air” study so I used a hand made Indian rag paper with deckled edges and a rough surface. I kept the brush marks lively and fresh without loosing too much detail.

Sketchbook watercolour of Pittenweem

It’s not the first time I’ve produced a painting of Pittenweem. If you visit my website www.alanreed.com you will see a range of limited edition prints of the East Nuek of Fife including one of Pittenweem.

I have a number of new watercolours being exhibited at the Gullane Gallery, East Lothian 12th March until 3rd April. One of the paintings going on show is this cityscape capturing Princes Street, Edinburgh on a winter’s afternoon.

The scene is taken from Calton Hill which boasts commanding views over the city. Often it is the inclusion of figures which can bring a cityscape to life, but in this instance it’s the traffic, in particular the buses nudging their way into the queues of cars, that bring a sense movement to the watercolour.

Even though the time of year is winter and the sun has almost set, there’s a strong feeling of warmth and light coming through because of the base washes of Cadmium Lemon and Rose Madder. This is contrasted by the cold shadows created by a quite bold application of Paynes Grey for the road and rooftops. Further interest has been achieved by the highlights on the cars and buses on Princes Street which have been very simply rendered.

Lifting out some of the colour has brought a feeling of mist and smokiness, giving the architecture an ethereal quality which has enhanced the depth and ariel perspective to Auld Reekie.

For the last three years I’ve been exhibiting my paintings at the Gullane Gallery, East Lothian. I’ve been invited again to show a selection of new works as part of their easter exhibition starting 12th March.

For over 20 years I’ve enjoyed painting in Scotland so for this exhibition I decided to revisit some of the fishing villages that I’ve painted in the past along the East Neuk of Fife. The weather has been dreadful over the winter months which hindered my plans right up until early February when I was finally able to travel with the promise of sunny weather.

I managed to visit three of the fishing villages which I have painted before and have published as limited edition prints, Pittenweem, Anstruther and Crail.

Even though it was sunny, it was still very cold but I was still able to do a sketchbook watercolour at each one of the harbours. The one of Crail was painted from a high vantage point looking into the low winter sun.

Sketchbook Watercolour of Crail

For the larger studio painting I tried to keep the palette as simple as the sketch and the brush marks as lively, however I couldn’t resist adding some of the details found in the nearby buildings which overlook the picturesque harbour.

The exhibition at the Gullane Gallery will also feature another painting of Crail as well as paintings of Pittenweem, North Berwick and Edinburgh. The exhibition continues until 3rd April 2016.

On 29th January I was notified that my new watercolour titled Mont Blanc and Manganese Blue had been selected Royal Watercolour Society Contemporary Watercolour Competition 2016. It’s the second time one of my paintings has been chosen. In 2013 my painting “Jebel Akhdar, Oman” won the Artists Prize in the same competition. It’s very difficult to do justice to the grandeur and majesty of a mountain range in a small watercolour painting, however when you are actually up a mountain with a box of paints and a sketchbook you have to give it a try.

Such an occasion arose in July 2015 when Susan and I took our daughter and her children to Chamonix in France. We bought passes for the cable cars in the region and went up Aiguille du Midi which overlooks Mont Blanc. I did a sketchbook watercolour which was the inspiration for a studio painting “View from Aiguille du Midi”. This is currently on view at my Studio and Gallery in Ponteland. We were so taken by the stunning views that my daughter and I returned again, very early morning. I did a second sketchbook study which became the catalyst for “Mont Blanc and Manganese Blue”.

My Sketchbook Watercolour of Mont Blanc from Aiguille du Midi

The clarity of colour and crispness of light meant that when painting the sketch, I had to strip back my palette to basic colours. I used the white of the paper to indicate the snow on Mont Blanc and neat Manganese Blue (with a touch of French Ultramarine) for the sky. I added the smallest amount of purple for some of the shadow areas and Raw Sienna and Vandyke Brown for the dark foreground rocks. When it came to painting the studio work I made sure I maintained the simplicity of the sketchbook watercolour, even laying it over the larger original whilst it was in progress to ensure I wasn’t making it too tight.

Mont Blanc and Manganese Blue original and sketchbook

The title of this painting comes partly from using the lovely colour “Manganese Blue” produced by Winsor and Newton which I have been using since the late 1980’s. It’s a brighter blue than Cerulean which I personally find a little flat in comparison. When used in conduction with French Ultramarine and Winsor Blue, you can achieve some beautiful deep blue skies.

My painting “Mont Blanc and Manganese Blue” goes on show at the Bankside Gallery, London Friday 4th – Wednesday 16th March 11am – 6pm and will be available to purchase from the exhibition.